Sunday, February 26, 2012

---Wednesday:
I got my haircut. Really short in the back, and tapered on the sides angled to my face an longer in the front. Kind of a "mod" style. I like it. Conrad says he liked it before, and Scott says it is really nice.

---Thursday:
Was a karate night, I found a new Black T at Fred Meyer to wear Friday night at 70% off the last clearance price. And a paid of clearance shoes for Conrad when he blows out the side of his current pair, which is inevitable.

---Friday:
Dinner with Kerry and Rob at John Howie Steakhouse at the Bravern in Bellevue. Good food and company!

Filet Mignon "Oscar" style with asparagus, bearnaise and lobster

Cheesecake round cream fraiche, with a hint of lemon

leftovers

seafood bisque shots

Twice baked three cheese potater

blueberry pomegranate (?) sorbet trio

---Saturday:
Apparently the "dolling" up I did - did me in. I now have issues wearing eyeliner makeup I never had before. Serious issues. I got an allergic reaction and Scott drove me to urgent care with flaming swollen demon red eyes. And afterwards all day I had to take all the precautions of pink eye contagion, so it is a royal pain, and painful.

---Sunday:
Conrad's little play buddy down the street came and spent the day. Scott went and had lunch with Rob.
I didn't play any games with the boys this time, but I did take them to a movie, mom too. The boys sat away from us adults. We saw "Journey2 : The Secret Island." I think it was well paced and pretty good. A good family film. It was 3 D so I was happy to hide behind black glasses.
What is it with me having issues... Not to complain, but really? It is hard enough that I am now lactose intolerant, cannot digest certain cheeses (at all), am allergic to almost all antibiotics (seizures/hives/vomiting/fevers) --I know g---gross!!!!
My makeup is turning on me (allergic conjunctivitis), and I have to have free & clear laundry soap and static sheets too (rash/hives), ... However the worst is not being able to comfortably eat chocolate. I seriously cannot have even 5 M&M's without gut wrenching pain shooting all over in the middle of the night and nauseous to the point of passing out.

Enough belly aching...

Scott was so wonderful to make the food for tomorrow's Blue and Gold Scouts Potluck.
A large pot of rice a roni, and a crock pot of pork for BBQ pull pork. Thanks honey!

After the movie at the Redmond Bella Botega Theatre, we headed for lunch. We saw the Wienermobile at the Redmond QFC.. Same place Scott and I had our pics taken.. I got the boys.. Cute huh!

At a thrift shop a few months ago I bought a vintage chandelier. I thought I could clean it up, or maybe sell it. okay, after a month or so of it sitting around, I knew I just wouldn't get to it. I only paid $19.99. Yes, only $20. The funny thing is, at another thrift store was the twin to the one I just bought, however they were wiser, the price tag on that one was $129.99. I passed.

This story is going somewhere...I promise.

At Christmas-time I bought some cool ornaments at a shop called Common Folk, and I saw this hanging above the register. Wouldn't you know it was the exact same chandelier. When I saw the price tag, I thought, you know, maybe they would be interested in mine... So I left my name and number. When we returned from vacation, I got a call from them, and tonight I sold the chandelier.

No, I didn't make bank. But I kinda want my foot in the door as I have a few other items that I know they will want that I just (seriously) won't get around to fixin' up.

I bought a vintage patio chair for 4.99, really ornate but cool too...and of course, want to fix it up too.. They had one there like it, and maybe they would be interested in it too.. I've got just so much stuff. I have good stuff. And I only want to part with stuff that I know I won't get around to-it as a project. Frankly my husband has so many hunny-do's that I need to minimize them.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sea World was our last day in San Diego. I will post it first, because sadness of all sadness, the first day's pictures may be lost as the memory card seems to have an issue. Scott is trying to recover it..but he says don't hold your breath. So I really am trying not to think about it, and will just happily post what I can.
So here are some pics of Sea World!

Monday, February 13, 2012

It has come up fast, this Wednesday we will be heading to Carlsbad, via San Diego.
We leave Wed night, for 3 nights in Carlsbad and Thursday/Friday will be spent at Legoland Park. Saturday we will head to Sea World for the day spending the night near the airport and heading out bright and early Sunday. I think 2 days at the Legoland is just right. Though if anyone has been there, any suggestions or tips are appreciated!

Some know that I work at my company as a rate analyst. What I do as a rate analyst is maintain rates in our systems and negotiate for the best rates possible.

At home, I am always looking for the best quality, and the lowest rate as well.
Please do not confuse that with a "saver" that is my husband's department. I am a SPENDER. A spender that uses my tools to buy more with the little I have.

Example:

Tickets from Seattle to San Diego nonstop are about
600+ tax RT per person. NO KIDDING (!!!?!!).. That is a total of $2,050 for 3.
(Outrageous!!)

In October there were some killer Alaska Airlines stealdeals for airfares. I received and e-mail of Wickedly low fares from Alaska Airlines and it listed Seattle to San Diego*40 /*89.

No way, I had to check it out.
The REAL DEAL, and this is because we prefer NON-STOP with a child, ended up being about $80 per person Each way, so $160 per person, for a total for all 3 of us Seattle to San Diego, $499

Folks, that is a $1570 savings. !!!!

The catch, there is one, the flight out is super early @ 6:30am. Totally doable, as the last night, is one night at a hotel closer to the airport, and closer to Seaworld, with free shuttle to the airport. So we will roll out of bed and sleepily be driven to the airport minutes away to arrive home before noon, cool actually.

So I then looked online at hotels, and saw that I could upgrade the room to a Villa (timeshare luxury suite) that has a King bedroom, full kitchen, dining area etc, from just a 2 queen room for only $34 per day more! And we are talking the closest hotel to the Legoland park, the property actually backs up against it.

Sometimes if you book 3 or more nights, you will get a discount on the rate. With this discount, the overall costs of 3 nights is only $102 more than a regular room, not per night, total.
Since I have the savings of the airfares, $34 per day extra on the room, and we also save having no car, to have a King bed and privacy, priceless my friends.

I have always had a knack of planning vacation on the thrift, but having them be large.
I love vacation so much!!! I thought several times about being a travel agent. You never know..

Other tips:
Suggestions if you travel to Hawaii, contact a consolidator
agent on Hawaii directly as they work directly with the renters and can communicate deals instead of prepackaged accommodation specials. When you deal with an online agent, or agent in that is NON island, you are not getting the best deal. You can do this by googling rental agent and the island name.

We met Aug 12, 2006.
We travelled to Kauai April, 2007 and were engaged on the Wailea river April 29th.
We were married Aug 30, 2008.

So we have not returned to Hawaii since. I would love to celebrate our 5th anniversary and also take Conrad to see another island, perhaps Maui next year. I think Scott would be happy if we went on our 10th!

Scott is not a guy that can easily look ahead and plan. He keeps his head down on the grindstone and that works for him. Me, I am the one with my head looking out over the horizon to the next wonderful memory!

I will have TONS of photos from LegoLand after the weekend I expect.
Have a great weekend as well.

Scott razzes me all of the time that I do not take pictures of me and I am"missing" from events. Ok, I admit it.. I am not fond of my image particularly. It is not a bad image really. I just don't think that I am all that photogenic. I realize that I am not fair if I am always wanting pictures of others and don't have a few of me....

This is me today. So far it is a casual laid back and glasses kind of day.

We have returned from breakfast out, and I have the washer humming along downstairs, and the dishwasher swishing away in the background upstairs. My wonderful honey has agreed to take Conrad to Karate in an hour so I can keep up the momentum. I blog in between breaks, but things are seeming to get done and progress is being made. When they are gone it will be a quiet bliss.

Over time I have amassed quite a few digital elements, some I found I have never even opened the zip file folders, and I have forgotten what is inside.

So lately I have been spending allot of time organizing items in folders on my computer. I have one folder labelled Papers, and Word strips, and another ribbons borders and bows. It is nice to see alike items all in one place to actually see what I have to use.

Last weekend was really pretty un eventful. I was feeling under the weather and slept almost all of Saturday. Sunday I dropped the old Jeep off at the detailers for Scott. Of course it happened to be super bowl Sunday. So of course the extractor "broke" and we had to bring it back another time.. They laughed (and looked down sheepishly) when we went in to pick it up and I said that it sounded like "Superbowl-itis"

This Saturday:

We were able to take Conrad to see his dad today. We could only spend a few hours on that side of the water. So a drive over, some time shopping, and lunch, and it was quickly time to come back home. I do wish I had more time to see others. I drive by Silverdale where my friend Donna lives. Also the way to dad and Diane's. And Kevin and Theron's too.

A late lunch at JJ's Fish House on the Poulsbo waterfront hit the spot.

Cute photo op with JJ's fish.

Yumnnn

Mom enjoys the Halibut and Chips.

My sister Laura enjoys them too.

Okay, so we all got the halibut and chips.. They were totally awesome.

Conrad, well he loved the lemons.

Ooooh, best fish and chips for a long while.

Happy faces

smiles for daddy

My sister plays games with Conrad

Fortune from Friday.

Thursday:
view at Similan Thai. The restaurant down the hill from work.
Murals all over the walls, throughout the floors.

Mural by my seat.

Crabs at my feet.

Phad Kee Mao is fat noodles with chicken and I add seafood. I just love seafood.
Especially Calimari

The cool sink in the Thai restaurant.

Saturday Morning: Breakfast reading. Calvin and Hobbes

Friday:
Picking him up from school, he shows me how they play with the Pokeman cards in the schoolyard.